Youth Movement Education in WWII

Stephanie Berger

The years between 1939 and 1941 were a difficult time
for the Jewish people. The Nazi party was in power and Germany had begun to take control
of surrounding countries. The defeat of Poland in September of 1939 was
especially worrisome for the Jews.The
first task of the Germans against the Jews was to concentrate all of the Jews
into self-contained environments so that they would not be a part of the new
Aryan society, or contaminate it in any way. In Warsaw,
the largest city in Poland,
the ghetto was closed on Saturday, November 16, 1940.[1] The
order to establish a ghetto in Lodz, the second
largest city in Poland,
was issued on February 8, 1940 and the ghetto was closed on May 1, 1940.[2]
Before the German occupation, Vilna had been the “Jerusalem of Lithuania,” but
the subsequent formation of the ghetto on September 6, 1940 changed everything.[3] The
ghettoization cut the Jews off from every aspect of life as they had known it –
schools, hospitals, community centers, workplaces, and shops. Yet the Jews
maintained as much normalcy as they could during this time period especially
considering their circumstances. One area that remained important, and even may
be viewed as gaining more importance in light of the situation of the time, is
the education of the youth.Zionist
youth movements developed quickly, and contributed greatly to the educational
movement.

The education provided by the Zionist youth movements
in the ghettos took on many forms, from the organization of underground
schools, gatherings to teach the ideals of the movement, training seminars for
movement leaders, newspapers and more. But there are those who would question
if the activities of the Zionist youth groups were really a form of education
when they were done so informally and clandestinely. I argue that the Zionist
youth groups of Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna played a crucial role in the
general education of the community.

On September 1, 1939, German troops
entered the border town of Gleiwitz, beginning
the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Within days, Poland
was in German hands.[4] In Warsaw, only the Jewish
primary and vocational schools were allowed to remain open initially. All
Jewish secondary schools were closed immediately. Within two months, all formal
Jewish schools were ordered closed. The Judenrat,
the Jewish governing group appointed by German authorities to run the ghetto,
appealed this decision to the Germans, but the appeal was rejected.[5] Left
with thousands of children without anything thing to do, the youth movements
quickly organized to combat this problem. Tzivia Lubetkin, a leader of the Dror
movement, reports in her diary that many of the youth group leaders of the Dror
movement had actually been in Lvov, outside of the danger zone, since shortly
after the war broke out and they remained there until late in December 1939.[6]
Although they themselves were safe, the leaders of the movement felt nervous
that their young charges were in danger. Therefore, the decision was made to
return to the occupied zones and Tzivia Lubetkin returned to Warsaw.[7] “Our
primary concern was to preserve a semblance of human dignity and Jewish pride
in the darkness of the degradation all around us. We sought a course of action
which would allow us to preserve our pioneering spirit and pass it on to the
youth” she recounts.[8]

The Dror movement organized the first underground
seminar in the ghetto and training seminars for new leaders were quick to
follow.[9] One
of the major accomplishments of the Dror movement was the establishment of an
underground elementary school as well as a high school. The formation of
schools and education systems was imperative for the Dror movement because they
“saw the younger generation living in idleness, growing up ignorant and
boorish. This was precisely the German’s aim. Therefore, we felt it our duty to
do something about it…so we established our underground schools.”[10] A
Jewish education council and Jewish school committee[11] did
exist in Warsaw,
however it is uncertain what the functions of these organizations were and if
they accomplished anything.[12] In
all of the Zionist youth movements, the leaders became the teachers and school
or lessons were no longer only about general academic subjects, but also about
the mission of the movement to which the leader belonged. Much of the education
provided by the Zionist youth groups was informal in nature, through games and
social gatherings.[13]
There was a greater agenda beyond just providing knowledge to the students, that
of providing a sense of community and collectivism in order to achieve the
higher goal of becoming pioneers in Israel. In addition, the Zionist
youth movements published written material including a number of newspapers and
guidebooks for the leaders.[14]

The Lodz ghetto was tightly controlled by the Judenrat, who supported the education of
the youth, changing this aspect of the role of Zionist movements[15] In
Lodz, Hashomer Hatzair “was the symbol of barren community,” with much less
youth group activity than that of Warsaw or Vilna.[16] All
youth group activities were held in Maryshin, a camp within the Lodz ghetto. Although
“youth under the age of sixteen were not allowed to live on Maryshin, or belong
to the youth groups…Zionist organizations sent their younger members to attend
specific events in Maryshin, and afterward sent them home to the ghetto.”[17] The
youth movements continued their agricultural education programs by establishing
kibbutzim, socialist agriculture
communities, in Maryshin.[18]
Formal schools in Lodz
continued to operate even in the ghetto under the auspices of Mordechai
Rumkowski, the head of the Judenrat.[19]
Since formal Jewish schools remained open in the Lodz ghetto, the Zionist youth groups did not
have a need to play a central role in the education system. Therefore, there is
little known about the educational activities of the Lodz Zionist youth
movements beyond the general activities of educating the younger generation
about socialism, Israel,
Zionism, and community values.

In the Vilna ghetto, as in Lodz, schooling continued. The library
remained open and operational, providing an outlet of education for the entire
ghetto. Leaders from the Zionist youth movements taught alongside those who
were teachers by profession, and clandestine schools were opened. These schools
did not teach the traditional curriculum, but instead taught the students what
it means to be a Jew.[20] A
regular school system was established in the ghetto[21],
although it is unclear if it was allowed to operate in the open or not. Yitzhak
Arad, in his article on the underground Zionist youth movements in Vilna,
expresses his view that

The youth movements in Vilna did not furnish an
alternative leadership in the ghetto, nor could they have functioned as one…the
youth movements in Vilna gave themselves over to the notion of waging an armed
struggle for Jewish honor in partisan units fighting in the forests; and it was
they who formed the core of those who subsequently were so exemplary in working
for illegal immigration to Eretz Yisrael,
and who contributed crucially to the establishment of the State of Israel.[22]

He
therefore indicates that there was a continuation of youth group activity and
education within the ghetto. The education must have continued in order for
people to unite to rebel because there must be a common ideology and goal to
work towards. If the Zionist youth movements had not continued, then there
would have been no outlet through which the leaders could influence others of
their views and to create a resistance. The members of the resistance, however,
were a small minority of the ghetto population. Much of the work of the Vilna
youth groups was due to Hashomer Hatzair leader, Abba Kovner. Hashomer Hatzair
held a large presence in the ghetto. Kovner was a very vocal individual who had
a large influence on the youth movement activity.

The knowledge provided by the Zionist youth movements
in all of the ghettos did not generally take on the form of a regular school as
one would think of it today. The activities did, however, provide an education
for all participants. The topics of the gatherings stimulated the students
intellectually and gave them sustenance. The groups served to further their
ideals of creating Zionist or socialist communities both with a strong
connection to Palestine
and the goal of living in the land. The ability to influence youngsters to
strongly believe in the credos of the youth groups was the top priority of the
youth movements’ agendas and is consistent with the general idea of what
education is. The Zionist youth movements differed from formal education in
that their education went beyond the call of duty. They viewed education not as
something that only happened in the classroom, but they believed that education
was something to live by. The youth were encouraged to read at home and to
continue to study when it was difficult to hold classes and other large
gathers. The education also provided moral sustenance in a time of great
despair and gave the youth a reason to continue to live.

The educational role of the Zionist youth groups was
especially important because the youth were a particular target of the Nazis.
Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s second in command, “stated that it was the Reich’s
moral duty to kill every Jewish child and infant.”[23]
Activities and group homes for children were encouraged in many ghettos because
they would facilitate transport to the death camps. It is known that most
children were sent strait to the gas chambers upon arrival in the camps.[24] The
education provided by the youth groups therefore formed a purposeful resistance
to the Nazi agenda because it served as a continuation of life for the people.
The youth movements were aided by their messengers who traveled between the
different ghettos under the guise of Polish or German identities. The youth
movements were often the first group of people, outside of the confidants of
the Germans, to know that all of the people removed from the ghetto were taken
to death camps. When people denied the evils that were happening, the youth
groups were also usually the only group to believe that all of the people had
really been killed.

In the later years of the war, following the ghetto
period, from 1942 until 1945, the previously silent resistance of Zionist youth
group education took on an entirely different mission. The youth movements
became the driving force behind the armed resistance movements. At this time,
many ghetto residents had already been exterminated or deported to the death
camps. The Nazi army was constantly changing the borders of the ghetto to
include a smaller area, as there were fewer and fewer people. Knowing that the
end was near for them as well, many of the remaining residents of the ghetto
who were members of the youth movements joined forces to create an armed
resistance. Abba Kovner’s statement in his proclamation to the partisans of
Hashomer Hatzair, “let us not give ourselves like sheep to the slaughter,”
resonated throughout all of Poland.[25] The
youth movements turned their ideologies into political parties and joined
forces to resist. In Warsaw,
a number of people who would play key roles in the uprising were already living
outside the ghetto and returned in order to fight. Both Warsaw
and Vilna had an armed resistance, however the Lodz ghetto did not.[26] Can
it be that there is a direct correlation between Zionist youth group activity
and resistance? An answer to this question requires further study.

Even in the face of death, the Jewish people had hope
for the future, and they continued to have this hope because they had a system
of education. The systems of education during this time, either in the form of
schools or youth groups, are not what we would think of today. In Warsaw, neither the
schools nor the Zionist youth groups had a permanent home. Classes and meetings
were held in a different location every time, often in a one-room apartment
with the entire family present, but this did not deter them.[27] The
little information that is available about this time period sheds light onto
the values of the people during this dark and difficult time, and reiterates to
us the fact that people were searching for a sense of normalcy.[28]

The small pieces of information that we do have,
mostly from isolated areas and personal testimony, make it difficult to really
be able to know the entire scope of the formal and informal educational systems
in the ghettos of World War II. There is a lot more evidence of Zionist youth
group education in the Warsaw
ghetto than other ghettos, because of the diarists of the Oneg Shabbat group
who meticulously recorded the happenings of ghetto and buried their diaries in
milk cans. A good portion of these diaries have been found even though the
authors did not survive the war. Other key figures who survived the war,
including Tzivia Lubetkin, have since published autobiographies. In Lodz and Vilna, the same
effort to record events in the ghetto was not made and much less information
remains. Most of the written secondary literature on the topic does not touch
on the educational aspects of the youth movements and focuses instead on the
resistance efforts from a historical point of view. There is still much that
remains to be uncovered about the Zionist youth group education from primary
documents and from an educational point of view.

Whether or not the Zionist youth movements of the
ghettos in Poland
provided an education in the formal sense, they have served as an important
model for the Zionist youth groups of today. The informal activities that the
youth groups developed in order to teach their ideals have now been recognized
by many educators as an important method that needs to be incorporated into
formal education, especially in the world of Jewish education. While the youth
movements of Poland were not
global in scale, they looked towards Palestine
as their inspiration. Since the establishment of the State of the Israel in May of 1948, many of the current
Jewish Zionist youth movements have established their headquarters in Israel.
Many of today’s most idealistic youth movements have become worldwide movements
and many focus on bringing youth to Israel. In this respect, the legacy
of the Zionist youth movements and their education practices has continued and
will continue to flourish in the coming years.